Well, the way I see it is that I normally use chopping boards for food preparation, and bleach or Dettol spray cleaner are great for wiping down the benches especially as the latter doesn't leave any harmful residue. With Bramble needing careful handling right now, I'd just take advantage of the fact you can approach her when she's up there, and she feels less threatened.

Thankfully, we can put the lid down on our hob after cooking, because I know Moray has a habit of walking over it if he thinks there's something interesting going on further along the bench top.

I was just about to turn in for the night, when I saw this. Before she went walkabout for 2 days and nights, Bramble would jump down as soon as she heard me walking to the kitchen, but this time she stayed put. I know I should try to dissuade them from jumping onto the worktops, let alone sleeping on them, but I'm so pleased that Bramble is getting less nervous of my approach, I haven't the heart to shift them!

Bramble, after being AWOL for 2 days (and nights), cried to come in and strolled in for long enough to shut the door. She then cried for ages to go out again (no chance!) and kept running away from me whenever I got close. Then Lily got involved, and calmed her down. After Lily went off to sleep somewhere else, Bramble stayed where she was and let me stroke her, so I think I'm making some progress.

Getting back to normal today, with the cooler weather, though she's still a bit twitchy. She's near enough her old self to pick up bad habits from Lily! When I spotted them both up there, it was actually worse. Bramble was sprawled across the stove next to Lily, but moved when she saw me!

A couple of Bramble shortly after coming home from the vet. I kept her in today, so I could see if there was something obviously wrong, but there wasn't, though she was very vocal, and her mouth stayed open longer than normal, so I took her along to the vet to get her checked out. She's had the all clear, so it's probably just the heatwave unsettling her.

Yes, it is, I hadn't thought of that. The kitchen is generally the hottest part of the house. Bramble has come in at a nearly sensible time at last. She didn't come in at all last night, and almost came in a few hours ago, but saw me and ran away. I'm pretty sure I haven't trod on her, or hurt her in any way, but she's been skittish for a while now, I reckon it's the heatwave.

I'm not getting many photos of Bramble lately, as she keeps disappearing for hours. In fact, she was gone from Friday morning until the early hours of Sunday morning. She's out now, I've no idea where. I'll be glad when the thunderstorms arrive, it'll persuade all the cats to come in! This one is from yesterday evening, when she took a leaf out of Lily's book, and stole her spot!

Lily is starting to get a little annoyed when I put the ointment in her eye, but she quickly forgives me, and comes and sits near me, even when I don't have any food!

Much better! I'll continue with the medication, just to make sure it stays better, but that's not the problem I expected it to be, Lily has been as good as gold, though once the ointment is in her eye, she runs off to hide in a corner for a few minutes.

Today the cats were kept in, apart from Lily who, as you can see has a problem with her eye, and had a trip to the vet. Nothing too serious, probably conjunctivitis, and the vet gave me some ointment for it, which should be fun to apply! She doesn't squint all the time, and I would have taken another photo, but I didn't want to risk the flash going off again.

Not content with stealing the other cats' (mainly Lily's) favourite spots, Clio is now stealing my chair. As soon as I sit down, she jumps on me, but if I get up, she takes over the chair, and is very reluctant to give it up again!